OT: Fun With Fracking!
- Thread starter RU4Real
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So you're telling me that you know of a reason why earthquake clusters would occur in the absolute middle of the Stable Interior Craton, with no fault zones for 1000 miles, composed of some of the oldest and thickest rock on the planet?
I gotta hear this one. Please, enlighten us.
I apologize for saying this, but your statement is bullshit.
It has everything to do with the earthquakes in Oklahoma, just like it had everything to do with the earthquakes in Arkansas 2 years ago. When the fracking stopped, so did the earthquakes.
But relax, none of the earthquakes were over 5.0 so the damage was minor overall.
It's actually pretty easy to draw the correlation, in this case.
You have a part of the country that is THE most stable, geologically. Not even close.
On top of the stable craton, west of the Mississippi River, are alluvial deposits from the tens of millions of years worth of Rocky Mountain erosion. The Rockies are, in fact, buried up to their hips in their own eroded waste and a cross section of the Great Plains from Colorado to the Mississippi resembles a segment of a cheese wheel, laid on its side - the western border of Nebraska, for example, is 3000' higher than the eastern border.
In the part of Oklahoma in question, the quakes aren't occurring deep in the bedrock, where one would expect fault-related earthquakes - if such a fault were to exist, which it does not, in that part of the country. They are, instead, occurring at shallow depths, in the alluvial deposits, which have no reason to move on their own.
The simple explanation is that the high-pressure injection wells are creating an unnatural lubricity within the alluvial deposits above the bedrock and allowing it to essentially "flow" beneath the surface. This motion is being registered, at the surface, as seismicity.
You have a part of the country that is THE most stable, geologically. Not even close.
On top of the stable craton, west of the Mississippi River, are alluvial deposits from the tens of millions of years worth of Rocky Mountain erosion. The Rockies are, in fact, buried up to their hips in their own eroded waste and a cross section of the Great Plains from Colorado to the Mississippi resembles a segment of a cheese wheel, laid on its side - the western border of Nebraska, for example, is 3000' higher than the eastern border.
In the part of Oklahoma in question, the quakes aren't occurring deep in the bedrock, where one would expect fault-related earthquakes - if such a fault were to exist, which it does not, in that part of the country. They are, instead, occurring at shallow depths, in the alluvial deposits, which have no reason to move on their own.
The simple explanation is that the high-pressure injection wells are creating an unnatural lubricity within the alluvial deposits above the bedrock and allowing it to essentially "flow" beneath the surface. This motion is being registered, at the surface, as seismicity.
When we came down your way a few years ago I 'bout wrecked the rental Ford on 62 headed out to Eureka Springs the day before the game. There's a spot where the road crests a hill (at 1200' we'd call it a mountain in New Jersey) and cuts through the most amazing limestone formation.
Whenever I see limestone outcropping at some significant height above current sea level, I have to stop and look at it. In this particular case, the limestone in question is called the Boone Formation, and is Mississippian in age, dating back about 330 million years. The entire middle of what is now the United States was, at the time, a shallow sea straddling the equator.
The conservatives told me fracking is safe.
Kinda neat isn't it?
I have found seashells while dove hunting on farmland in Arkansas!
It's incredible. Next time you roll through there (I seem to recall it's the part of the highway that loops back toward the southeast, east of Pea Ridge), stop and bang on the roadcut with a hammer. I got some great fossils - and then proceeded to leave them in the door pocket of the damn car when we left on Sunday. :(
That scientific genius known as Ted Cruz? He's so smart and his supporters are brilliant! :)
Not the fracking per se, but pumping saltwater from fracking operations back into earth is likely culprit. I would imagine the saltwater would eventually be its own problem at some point, too.
https://news.vice.com/article/heres-why-oklahoma-may-be-having-so-many-earthquakes.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...lahoma-earthquake-spike-wastewater-injection/
Sharp increase in central Oklahoma seismicity since 2008 induced by massive wastewater injection
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6195/448.full?sid=f6dd517e-3cae-4cb3-9c33-a4cb97953514
https://news.vice.com/article/heres-why-oklahoma-may-be-having-so-many-earthquakes.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...lahoma-earthquake-spike-wastewater-injection/
Sharp increase in central Oklahoma seismicity since 2008 induced by massive wastewater injection
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6195/448.full?sid=f6dd517e-3cae-4cb3-9c33-a4cb97953514
Depends on your definition of "safe", I suppose. Injection wells can be fine, if the underlying stratigraphy is well mapped and thoroughly understood. Unfortunately, that level of understanding isn't typically part of the exploration budget. They do a few seismic soundings to verify that the rock types they're looking for (mostly shale, some sandstone) exists where they expect it to.
The problem comes in not completing the analysis of what happens to the injection fluid itself, once its injected. It will move - it will flow from less porous rock to more porous rock (oil does the same thing, naturally, as do gas deposits). The "downstream" effects can be hard to predict.
The problem comes in not completing the analysis of what happens to the injection fluid itself, once its injected. It will move - it will flow from less porous rock to more porous rock (oil does the same thing, naturally, as do gas deposits). The "downstream" effects can be hard to predict.
If there was only a way to show emotion and feelings on the darn internet!!! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::scream::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::flushed::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::joy::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::angry::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::weary:
[eyeroll][jumpingsmile][banana][cheers]:chairshot:[sick]:uzi::mad:[roll]
There have been a series of small tremors in Irving, centered around the old Cowboy stadium. No doubt linked to fracking. The city of Denton held a referendum and the voters rejected fracking in the city limits. A few months later, the state legislature passed a law denying municipalities the right to ban fracking, overturning the mandate.
The fact that people call anything mountains in New Jersey is one of those quaint, little things ya gotta love about NJ. Bless their hearts.
I'm pretty sure it's miniature North Korean nuclear bombs.
(Those miniature North Koreans are pretty sneaky.)
(Those miniature North Koreans are pretty sneaky.)
Maybe it's misplaced nostalgia. 400 million years ago, the portion of the state now known, geologically, as the New Jersey Highlands was comprised of actual mountains. Pretty big ones. It's all Precambrian granite that was shed westward from the mountains lifted in the Taconic Orogeny 440 million years ago, buried by subsequent volcanism, lithified, then uplifted and exposed.
The "mountains" of far northwestern NJ, however, are not actually "mountains", per se. It's mostly limestone and shale, deposited in Ordovician seas, then lifted by the same Jurassic volcanism that exposed the NJ highlands, and subsequently eroded into plateaus. The Poconos are much the same - not mountains, but eroded plateaus.
The state of North Carolina has recently enacted legislation that allows for fracking. The "prime" shale deposits are in three counties in central NC: Lee, Chatham, and Moore.
To date, no exploration has taken place or permits granted, thanks to the oversupply of natural gas. It is just not feasible to frack, yet. Still our state has failed to acknowledge the great harm that fracking causes, particularly with ground water contamination.
The powers behind this initiative are promising "safe" fracking, and yet the regulations do not require frackers from identifying the various chemicals they will inject into the earth, as these are "trade secrets," despite the fact that all frackers know well what these chemicals are.
Most troubling, here in Moore County, water is scarce and the water table is very shallow. And tourism is key to the local economy. How this can be jeopardized by fracking is numbing, especially given that there is something equivalent to a four-month supply of gas to be gained, based on national consumption rates.
To date, no exploration has taken place or permits granted, thanks to the oversupply of natural gas. It is just not feasible to frack, yet. Still our state has failed to acknowledge the great harm that fracking causes, particularly with ground water contamination.
The powers behind this initiative are promising "safe" fracking, and yet the regulations do not require frackers from identifying the various chemicals they will inject into the earth, as these are "trade secrets," despite the fact that all frackers know well what these chemicals are.
Most troubling, here in Moore County, water is scarce and the water table is very shallow. And tourism is key to the local economy. How this can be jeopardized by fracking is numbing, especially given that there is something equivalent to a four-month supply of gas to be gained, based on national consumption rates.
Maybe, but I'd bet only you and four other NJ residents knew that before this thread :)
I think its obvious that fracking can cause earth movement, but are there any real documented cases of domestic groundwater contamination?
Not only is fracking causing earthquakes it is poisoning our water supply.
We have also been denied the right to know what chemicals they are pumping into the ground.
We have also been denied the right to know what chemicals they are pumping into the ground.
Exxon Mobil CEO: No fracking near my backyard!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/02/22/exxon-mobil-tillerson-ceo-fracking/5726603/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/02/22/exxon-mobil-tillerson-ceo-fracking/5726603/
EPA says that fracking is not causing widespread or systemic contamination of water supplies, in fact they say it is rare. They acknowledge the need for good monitoring and continued research. Read the report at http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-07/documents/hf_es_erd_jun2015.pdf
You do realize there is a revolving door between government agencies such as the EPA and FDA and the corporations that are poisoning our food, water and environment.
That is funny. Exxon CEO protesting against fracking in his town. I wonder if it's Bp or Chevron that wants to frack in his town.
From the "Executive Summary" of that report:
"... Residents and drinking water resources in areas experiencing hydraulic fracturing activities are most likely to be affected by any potential impacts, should they occur. However, hydraulic fracturing can also affect drinking water resources outside the immediate vicinity of a hydraulically fractured well; a truck carrying wastewater could spill or a release of inadequately treated wastewater could have downstream effects."
From our assessment, we conclude there are above and below ground mechanisms by which hydraulic fracturing activities have the potential to impact drinking water resources. These mechanisms include water withdrawals in times of, or in areas with, low water availability; spills of hydraulic fracturing fluids and produced water; fracturing directly into underground drinking water resources; below ground migration of liquids and gases; and inadequate treatment and discharge of wastewater."
We should never let a silly thing like clean drinking water get in the way of capitalism and corporate profits. Water is overrated.
It been advised to use this to denote a sarcastic post>>>:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
BTW I was told by the same conservatives that Climate Change is just more liberal propaganda scare tactics. It is normal to be 72° on Christmas in Boston!
:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Oklahoma as we know it, within the context of the human record, has not been seismically active. As I said in a previous post, it sits in the middle of a very large lithospheric plate, or "craton". There is a lot of interpretation in tectonics, but the most recent interpretation of the formation of the North American craton is that it is composed of smaller pieces of lithosphere that came together through collisions in excess of 1.6 billion years ago. These very old plates comprise what is referred to as the "basement rock" of a continent. Here's a picture:
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